After Dark eBook

THE FRENCH GOVERNESS’S STORY

OF

SISTER ROSE.

PART FIRST.

CHAPTER I.

“Well, Monsieur Guillaume, what is the news
this evening?”

“None that I know of, Monsieur Justin, except
that Mademoiselle Rose is to be married to-morrow.”

“Much obliged, my respectable old friend, for
so interesting and unexpected a reply to my question.
Considering that I am the valet of Monsieur Danville,
who plays the distinguished part of bridegroom in
the little wedding comedy to which you refer, I think
I may assure you, without offense, that your news is,
so far as I am concerned, of the stalest possible
kind. Take a pinch of snuff, Monsieur Guillaume,
and excuse me if I inform you that my question referred
to public news, and not to the private affairs of
the two families whose household interests we have
the pleasure of promoting.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by such
a phrase as promoting household interests, Monsieur
Justin. I am the servant of Monsieur Louis Trudaine,
who lives here with his sister, Mademoiselle Rose.
You are the servant of Monsieur Danville, whose excellent
mother has made up the match for him with my young
lady. As servants, both of us, the pleasantest
news we can have any concern with is news that is
connected with the happiness of our masters.
I have nothing to do with public affairs; and, being
one of the old school, I make it my main object in
life to mind my own business. If our homely domestic
politics have no interests for you, allow me to express
my regret, and to wish you a very good-evening.”

“Pardon me, my dear sir, I have not the slightest
respect for the old school, or the least sympathy
with people who only mind their own business.
However, I accept your expressions of regret; I reciprocate
your ‘Good-evening’; and I trust to find
you improved in temper, dress, manners, and appearance
the next time I have the honor of meeting you.
Adieu, Monsieur Guillaume, and! Vive la bagatelle!"

These scraps of dialogue were interchanged on a lovely
summer evening in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-nine,
before the back door of a small house which stood
on the banks of the Seine, about three miles westward
of the city of Rouen. The one speaker was lean,
old, crabbed and slovenly; the other was plump, young,
oily-mannered and dressed in the most gorgeous livery
costume of the period. The last days of genuine
dandyism were then rapidly approaching all over the
civilized world; and Monsieur Justin was, in his own
way, dressed to perfection, as a living illustration
of the expiring glories of his epoch.